17 September 2014

Question Time - Education Tuesday 16 September 2014

Question Time for the Education Minister sated with a series
of question regarding GCSE and A-level Results. The Minister stated that “there continues to be a very strong performance by pupils here at
GCSE and A level, and it is important that we celebrate and acknowledge their
achievements across the North. We should not forget the teachers and
parents who supported them to reach this stage in their education.

GCSE performance was the highest since Joint
Council for Qualifications figures first became available in 2002. There
was a 0·2 percentage point increase at A* from 8·7% to 8·9%. There was
also a 0·2 percentage point increase to 28·2% in Grades A* and A.
Grades A* to C increased by 1·5 percentage points to 78·0%

In A-level performance, 83·7% of entries here
achieved grades A* to C, which is a 0·2 percentage point increase on last
year. The overall pass rate remained much the same as last year, with
98·1% of grades awarded at A* to E. Of those, 7·3% of grades were awarded
at A*. The previous figure was 7·2%.

One of my priorities as Education Minister
continues to be raising standards. These results are very encouraging, but
we cannot become complacent. There remain unacceptable achievement gaps
at all levels in our system, and I intend to do all that I can to tackle that”.

Schools:
Religious Impact

Paul Givan called on the education
minister to apologise for "the insult" he made to the Protestant
churches during a newspaper interview.

Mr Givan said the Minister said the churches should "step up to the
mark around their social responsibilities in education".

The minister said he had "in no
way insulted the Protestant churches".

Mr O'Dowd said he challenged the
Protestant churches, trade unions and civic society to "take up the mantle
of challenging academic selection and the ails it brings to our education
system and to our society".

Other topics the Minister had to
answer questions on during Oral Question Time were, Welfare Reform: Education
Budget, Shared Education in Limavady and east Antrim and the proposed new
capital builds for Priory College Hollywood Primary School.